a sense of me
by falling winter roses
Summary: dramione / for ql


**a/n: me: has two weeks to write**

**me: procrastinates until the last minute anyway**

**(also, note that I slightly change the history in this fic for storytelling purposes. Lucius dies in the Battle of Hogwarts, and so as Draco grows older, he grows differently than he did in canon and works as an Auror with a London apartment instead of not having a job and living at Malfoy Manor)**

**.**

_**chaser 1, qlfc forum, puddlemere united**_

_**season seven, round seven**_

_**main prompt:**_

**Department of International Magical Cooperation: Write about two or more people from different walks of life working together in some way.**

_**optional prompts:**_

**2\. (dialogue) "Well, this is awkward."**

**3\. (object) newspaper**

**5\. (setting) Knockturn Alley**

**word count: 1444**

**.**

Draco groaned as soon as he saw the pink memo floating above his desk. When he saw it, he immediately knew that his day would _not_ be the laid-back office day he got once in a while between the day-to-day action that came with being an Auror in these days, when illegal activities seemed more common than ever.

_Honestly._

Shooting spells at wannabe criminals was interesting enough, but it just got a bit _much_ after a while.

He stood for a moment, running a hand through his hair, sighed, and walked two steps into his cubicle to his tiny workspace in the hubbub of Auror Headquarters.

He sat down, grabbed at the memo, opened it, and read it. Then he read it again. And again.

Seems like this wouldn't be a shooting-spells-at-criminals sort of day after all.

"Oh, _Merlin,"_ he cursed. "Just wonderful."

"I see you've gotten my memo, Malfoy," a voice said from the entrance to Draco's cubicle. Draco looked up into the tired face of Hermione Granger.

"Y-yeah. I _definitely _got your memo." Draco leaned back in his desk chair and moaned a little, covering his face with his hands.

Hermione smiled wryly. "And I definitely see that you're not too happy about it."

He certainly wasn't. He was going to be spending his day with Hermione Granger, a woman he hadn't had the greatest history with, and his not-so-nice pureblood family. Every time he had to work with Hermione — hell, every time he had to work with _any_ member of their Golden little Trio — he simply felt… small. Uncomfortable in his own skin, guilty, and horribly, amazingly, _small._

"Did you _expect_ me to be?" Draco snapped, snapping back to a normal sitting position.

"No, of course not," Hermione sighed, dropping the smile. "Look, if this is too sensitive for you, that's alright. I'd understand. But you're the best connection we have, and—"

"I'm fine," Draco grumbled. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

Hermione blinked, pausing for a moment before speaking again. "I need you to help me with this case." She slapped a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ down on Draco's table, sending a few papers flying into the sea of white and yellow pages that covered Draco's floor space.

It certainly didn't seem a big case. "Which article?" Draco asked.

Hermione pointed, and Draco furrowed his eyebrows as he read.

"_In Knockturn Alley, shoppers are getting quite confused as they realize that the large Dark Artifacts store Borgin and Burkes' has been sold. The store has been bought; its artifacts have all been sold to previous bidders. The owners of the store have, quite suddenly, disappeared. The store appears to have been bought by someone with the intention of converting the building…"_

"And the person who seems to be converting the building has set up a house crest on the front. First thing they did," Hermione said, interrupting Draco's reading.

"And what house does this crest belong to?"

Hermione hesitated.

"_What?"_

"Parkinson."

Draco stared at her for a few moments. It wasn't his family he'd be talking to after all… "Granger."

"Yes?"

"You want me to talk to that _cow?"_

"Well… kind of. It's most likely her brother's doing but knowing Pansy, it's a joint effort. And since we're not allowed to actually go inside and investigate without a real reason…"

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Draco grumbled as he stood to get his things from the shelf on the cubicle wall. "We're going to Knockturn Alley, then?"

"Yes."

"Come along now, Granger."

"How _rude."_

* * *

A few minutes later, the two Ministry employees had Apparated to an alley near the Leaky Cauldron and gone in and out of the pub, through the brick wall, and into Diagon Alley. They were a stark contrast to the few shoppers leisurely strolling through the alley.

They hurried down the alley, trying not to look too out of place as they did so, to Knockturn Alley's dingy entrance.

"What now?" Draco asked.

"I'll stay here. You go inside," Hermione said.

"But—"

"I'm a Mudblood, remember?"

"Don't call yourself that," Draco grumbled.

"Just go, would you?"

"I'm _going!"_

* * *

An hour later, Draco stumbled out of Knockturn Alley, face white, eyes red, hair mussed and rushing to get out.

Hermione was standing near the alleyway entrance under a Notice-Me-Not Charm and saw him come by. "Malfoy—?"

"I need to get out," he muttered as he passed Hermione. "Out, out, out, _out."_ And he hurried down the alleyways, keeping his head down, hiding from the passersby staring at him.

"Draco!" Hermione hurried after him, muttering apologies to the passing shoppers.

She caught up with him outside the Alley in the back of the Leaky Cauldron. "Malfoy, what in the _world?"_

"I can't go back there," he panted, slumping against the wall. "I can't. They'll… Hermione, you can't ask me to… _Please…_"

Hermione stared for a second at the use of her first name. "…Draco, you don't have to. It's fine. Just… Draco, what's wrong?"

"I can't… They're going to… Pansy and her brother… I won't… _Hermione…_"

Draco turned around, a sort of child-like pleading in his eyes. And they stared at each other for a long moment before Draco surged upwards and their lips met.

And for a moment or two, a minute and a half, nothing else seemed to matter. It sounded cliche, yes, and it was. It certainly was.

At least, that's how Draco felt when someone passed by and snorted.

"Finally," he heard someone laugh. "I've been feeling the sexual tension for years."

Draco whipped around to see a smirking Blaise Zabini disappear into the Leaky Cauldron, closely followed by an equally amused Theodore Nott.

"What the hell just happened?" Hermione asked.

"I-I don't—" Draco stuttered, turning to see a tomato red Hermione standing against the wall.

"D-Draco?"

"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry," Draco blurted, and rushed in and out of the Leaky Cauldron to immediately Apparate back to his London apartment.

* * *

Draco headed to the Ministry the next day with a great wave of anxiety slowly rising up inside him, which was due to crash on the shore of his calmness as soon as he saw Hermione.

Hermione _Granger._

_Merlin,_ if his good-for-nothing father could see him now.

"Morning, Malfoy," someone called to him. He nodded their way and hurried onwards to the lifts.

Oddly enough, Draco had only a normal office day. It took his mind off what Pansy had said. That he belonged there, with her, with her brother, with that horrible place they were building. Hermione didn't even come to visit him, which he saw as both a good and bad thing. Good, because that awkward encounter would be saved for another time. Bad, because it most likely meant that the events of yesterday had either meant nothing for her or meant that she now disliked him on a whole new level.

Bad, because it most likely meant that she didn't feel the same thing.

Bad, because Draco Malfoy had been denying something for a long, long time.

Hours later, after he'd gone home from his office day at the Ministry, the doorbell rang.

Draco, assuming that it was Blaise coming to tease him on yesterday's events, answered the door with the words "Go away" on the tip of his tongue. He certainly wasn't ready to see Hermione Granger staring back at him.

"Um. Hi. Malfoy."

Draco stared at her, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you think we're on first name terms now, Hermione?"

"Um… yeah. I guess so."

"My name…"

"Yes. Hello, Draco. May I come in."

"So formal." Draco shook his head in fake exasperation as he opened the doorway, smiling at her to try to alleviate the absolute awkwardness in the atmosphere.

They sat down on the sofa together, and after a long minute, Draco finally broke the silence.

"Well, this is awkward."

"Yes. Um… about yesterday…"

"Yes. I should apologize." Draco scratched at his neck, awkwardly looking away.

"No… Don't apologize. You should know that… I feel…"

Hermione paused.

"Hermione?"

"I feel the same way."

Draco immediately turned back to stare at the bushy-haired woman. "_What?"_

"Yes. I… I assume you…"

"Um… like you. Totally. Yes."

"That's not sarcasm, I hope."

"No! No, not at all."

"Well.. Draco Malfoy, these past few years… ever since Ron and I broke up… I… Well."

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Draco stared.

"Yes, I know it seems sudden. It seems cliche. It doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd say. Me, Hermione Granger, with a man like _you…"_ She laughed. "It doesn't seem real, does it?"

"No," Draco said softly. "No, it doesn't seem real."


End file.
